May 14, 2004
SO DIES 200 YEARS OF LEFTIST CANT:
Study: Brain prefers working instead of money for nothing (AP, 5/13/04)
Lottery winners, trust-fund babies and others who get their money without working for it do not get as much satisfaction from their cash as those who earn it, a study of the pleasure center in people's brains suggests.Emory University researchers measured brain activity in the striatum — the part of the brain associated with reward processing and pleasure — in two groups of volunteers. One group had to work to receive money while playing a simple computer game; the other group was rewarded without having to earn it.
The brains of those who had to work for their money were more stimulated.
"When you have to do things for your reward, it's clearly more important to the brain," said Gregory Berns, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral science. "The subjects were more aroused when they had to do something to get the money relative to when they passively received the money."
Berns and other researchers said the study has broader real-world implications, particularly in the age of multimillion-dollar lottery jackpots.
He said that other studies have shown "there's substantial evidence that people who win the lottery are not happier a year after they win the lottery. It's also fairly clear from the psychological literature that people get a great deal of satisfaction out of the work they do."
Sha na na na, sha na na na na...
Posted by Orrin Judd at May 14, 2004 7:13 PM
In a nutshell, that's why they're miserable and want us to be miserable, too.
Posted by: Sandy P at May 14, 2004 8:22 PMyip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip
Posted by: Tonto at May 14, 2004 9:42 PMI don't know how universal the findings are that lotto winners aren't any happier a year later... I guarantee that I would be.
Perhaps unhappy people tend to play the lottery, or, unhappy people tend to answer questionnaires a year after winnning a lot of money.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at May 15, 2004 12:38 AMI agree with Michael. I think this has much to do with purpose and little to do with money.
Posted by: Peter B at May 15, 2004 7:06 AMIt could have someting to do with all of the parasitic relatives and high school acquaintances who start begging for handouts from a lottery winner. I don't think that this happens so much with people who become rich of their own accord. There is much less respect for a person who "gets lucky". Everyone recognizes that they didn't earn it. On what basis does the winner refuse these come-ons? He can't say that he earned it, and therefore deserves it, so he is forced to be purely selfish with his good fortune.
It's tough to hear the whining of ungrateful relatives while laying on a beach in Tahiti. I think a PO Box would be plenty of contact info.
Most people don't have the imagination to live a life without work. They can't live within their own heads, so they need toys to distract them.
There are so many places that I've read about and would like to visit. Just the Napoleonic-era battle sites would take me 2 years.
Posted by: Pete at May 15, 2004 6:21 PMI'm with Pete. I'm sure I'm going to want to do something if I win a big lottery, but go find a job somewhere? What for?
If I want a certain job. and it requires specific education or training, I might consider going to school, learning how to do something, and then doing it.
Otherwise, as Jerry Seinfeld once said, "All men really want to do is walk around "checking things out."
I could figure out ten places to visit in an hour.
Heck, if I won the lottery, I'd definitely feel as though I'd earned it.....
Posted by: Barry Meislin at May 16, 2004 9:30 AMI'd become a full-time blogger, like OJ.
Posted by: Robert Duquette at May 16, 2004 11:25 AMKnowing some lotto winners I can say anecdotally
that winning doesn't answer the "existential
questions".
The money is fun for a few years and can do
some good paying for education and what not,
but...
OJ, then I'd have cabana duty.
Posted by: Robert Duquette at May 17, 2004 8:42 PMPrecisely...I'll lend you my John Kerry Professional Model Pumice Stone...
Posted by: oj at May 17, 2004 9:35 PM